Hi everyone,
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been thinking hard about how we can best support giffgaff members during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’ve seen lots of you make suggestions about things that we might be able to do to help people out. Some giffgaff members will be experiencing challenging circumstances as a result of losing their jobs, temporary work closures or having to self isolate, and we are looking at ways to do more to ease the burden on everyone.
First of all, if you think that you might have trouble staying connected or consider yourself to be in a vulnerable situation, please get in touch with our agents to discuss what we can do. We’ve already helped lots of people in a variety of situations, all the way from our most vulnerable members through to people who are stuck abroad, and we’ll do all we can for you as well.
We’ve also helped a local Citizens’ Advice centre that have been using giffgaff SIMs for their volunteers and are currently working from home, and we’re keeping those SIMs funded. This means they can make and receive the calls they need to help other people out - with regards to food bank referrals, benefit claims, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and more.
We’ve donated a hundred SIMs with goodybags to Solidarity Sports, a charity that helps vulnerable children suffering and recovering from severe trauma or facing social and economic barriers - something that’s particularly in need right now. These goodybags will allow those children to continue schooling in circumstances where they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
We are also working with a hospital that has reached out looking for funded SIMs to place in iPads for their patients. These will be invaluable to help keep patients connected to their loved ones during their difficult time in hospital isolation.
We’ve had a lot of requests for our support over the last few weeks, so to keep it sustainable and scalable and make sure we’re putting that help where it can do the most good, we’re going to be working with a new partner that will help us manage what we can do for other charities that need it most right now. We’re still sorting the final logistics on this so can’t say too much about it yet, but there will be an easy way that you can get involved too, and we should be able to talk more over the coming days.
Thanks,
Ash
